


The Queen of Ages

by nikpala



Category: Queen of Ages
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-15
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-01 18:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5216735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikpala/pseuds/nikpala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She is a cop. Her job is to protect women in trouble. A job she is very much dedicated to. So when she gets a call about a missing college girl, Inspector Rhea Shetty decides to leave no stone unturned in an effort to find the girl. What starts as a missing person's case turns lot more sinister, taking Rhea into a world of shadows she never knew existed!  </p><p>He is a spy. His job is to track bad people, uncover their plots and ensure they don't live to execute it. His job dictates him to follow orders without a question. So when he gets orders to sabotage Rhea's investigation, ACIO Randhir sets on to follow them but he has his doubts. He is a master of shadows, but when things go south with the case, Randhir realizes the shadows don't belong to him!! </p><p>She is a student. She is supposed to complete her graduation, get into a well paid job and settle down with a loving husband and a doting family. That is all what Ananya Mari dreamed about, a normal and content life. But one day her cousin went missing and her life took a turn that is anything but normal. Once she finds herself dragged into the abyss, Ananya battles hard not to let her life slip into the shadows!!!</p><p>3 people. Someone is messing with them. Why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Case of a missing girl

**Women Grievance Redressal Cell, Police Head Quarters, Pune**

The scene was as anyone could expect from an Indian Police Station. Creaking chairs, tired ceiling fans, squalling wooden benches, disarrayed office desks and grim faces of the occupants.

There were mountains of files piling upon the wooden desks of the police officers, bearing evidence not only to the spike in the number of unsolved cases but also to the indifference of its occupants towards their jobs. It looked as if there was no clean desk policy enforced or it was plainly ignored.

There was an exception to that mess though! It was the desk of Inspector Rhea Shetty. Even she had many open cases assigned to her along with numerous files pertaining to those cases. However she didn’t allow them to clutter and stack on her desk. She had neatly arranged them in her desk drawers with only the most important and urgent of them kept on top of it.

‘It is the excitement of something new!’ her colleagues would tell her, ‘Few years later, the indifference will creep up to you, the frustration will mount up and you will join the rest of us.’ That could well be a fact, being a police officer in India is as thankless as a job can get.

Rhea was going through a case file when the telephone on her desk rang. “Hello, Women Grievance Redressal Cell, Pune Police.”

“Inspector Rhea, this is Rajesh. Crime branch has picked up a case you guys could be interested in.”

“I am listening.”

“University Police Station has called us few minutes ago to notify us about a missing college girl. They are suspecting a kidnap with an intent of sexual assault. The girl’s cousin, who is also a student of the university, has filed an FIR with them.”

“How long has been she missing?”

“Probably 5-6 hours by now. She left the university campus in the noon and was never heard back from then.” Rhea looked at her watch which duly informed her that the time was 9:25 PM.

“What is the name of the girl who went missing? And the girl who lodged the complaint?”

“Geetha Mari is the girl who is missing. Ananya is the girl who informed us. They both are cousins, share the same last name, so most probably paternal relatives. They both hail from Hyderabad.”

“How is the canvassing going?”

“Two constables are canvassing the neighbourhood. Check points have been put up around the University. The college staff and her friends are calling every person whom she could have possibly met or spoke to today. To this moment, none of them did say anything about what she might have done or where she might have gone after she had left the university premises.”

“I will talk with the officer on scene. Kidnapping is right up your alley. We will need the expertise of Crime Branch on this. Who is your guy on the case?”

“Rhea, we are not poking our noses into cases that do not land up in our bucket. A female is missing with a high danger of assault against her. That is your case. We will leave it up to you. We have no men to spare. We will assist you in every manner, but we are not running point here.”

Rhea let out a sigh, this is the reason why Crime Branch has ‘duly’ informed her about this case. They wanted to take their hands off it.

“Thanks Rajesh. I will take it from here.” Rhea concluded the call.

“Sikha!” Rhea called out to her Sub Inspector who sat two desks away from her.

“Yes mam.”

“There is a case of missing girl student of University. She has been missing for 5-6 hours. Local police station cops are handling the scene. We have now been assigned to this case. Bring our team. We are going to University.”

“Yes mam. I will inform the driver we will leave in ten minutes.”

\-----xxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxxxx-----

  **Intelligence Bureau, Undisclosed location**

The board outside the building read Karan Enterprises. It gave off no hint about the nature of the work done inside its premises. The front gate was _‘seemingly’_ guarded by a young, unenthusiastic, low wage private security guard. Very little did anyone knew that the security guards carried concealed Glocks and could fight in two different styles while hurling curses in seven different languages.

 If one entered the building, barring the fact that since Karan Enterprises’ inception no visitor has ever entered the premises, one would notice that despite the old and crumbling exterior façade of the building, the interior looked rather modern and smooth. Only few trained eyes can detect the hidden cameras and motion sensors installed all along the crumbling exterior of the building. The building had a single exit which is the front door, there was no way possible to enter or exit the building if not for the front door.

The building hosted the offices of a state cell of Intelligence Bureau. Except for the head office in Delhi, the other offices of their state cells are not publicly known. Neither are the officers who work in it. In many cases, even the families were kept in dark about their work.

Randhir was busy analysing a document before he was interrupted by his colleague who rushed on to his cubicle to apprise him about something both urgent and important.

“New Delhi sent this over. Marked Urgent and ACIO Eyes Only.” Ravi said handing him over a sealed envelope.

Randhir opened the envelope and read the letter inside it. There is a lot that years of training can do to a person. There is a remarkable difference even in tasks as mundane as reading a letter.

He read the letter, scanning word to word, sentence to sentence and first alphabet to last.  He summarized the content of the letter and stowed it away in long term memory of his brain. He placed the letter back in the envelope, walked towards the furnace present in the corner of the room, threw the envelope into it and watched the envelope burn itself into a pile of ash.

He walked back to his desk and spoke to Ravi who was patiently waiting for him, “Activate our asset in Pune Police force. He needs to shadow Inspector Rhea Shetty. I need to know what she is doing, where she is going and whom she is meeting. I am travelling to Pune now.  I will debrief him once I reach there.”

“Why is this Rhea so important, sir?”

“Need to know basis Ravi. All I can say is she is investigating a case which is of immense interest to IB.”

“Yes sir. I will activate him straight away. Let me know if you need anything else.” Ravi said as he left to his cubicle.

Randhir didn’t notice Ravi leaving him, a rare miss from someone whose situational awareness was always high. This would have cost him his life on a mission. But the orders he received from New Delhi were quite strange, strange enough to knock him out of his wits.

 He kept thinking, “What does New Delhi want with a lady cop? And why in the hell is he ordered to distract her from the case?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys like the premise of the story. The plot primarily revolves around these three characters, who are our protagonists, but we will meet more characters as we progress with the story.
> 
> I plan to end this story in 30 or so chapters, so there is a long way to go! I plan on posting 2-3 chapter per week and complete the story by February 2016.
> 
> Constructive criticism is welcome. Please do not hesitate to share your feedback in the comments below. Thanks!


	2. The Minister's Son

There are few days that add no significance to our life, nothing remotely important has happened on those days. Then there are few days which we would love to relive every single day, something magical has happened on those days. And then there are few days that we wish had never come, something terrible has happened on those days. Ananya Mari was having one such day!

 Her cousin Geetha was missing since afternoon and her fears were growing worse with every passing minute. She called all her close friends but none knew where she might have gone. The cops had been informed about the case couple of hours ago but the search was yet to intensify. The college staff were more concerned about saving their asses than finding her cousin. Things couldn’t get any worse for her, or so she thought!

 She had been searching Geetha’s room for any clue that could say where she was headed to.  All evening she was running high on adrenaline but as it had begun to settle down, Ananya started to feel weary in her legs. She was sitting on Geetha’s couch and sobbing when Inspector Rhea Shetty walked in to examine Geetha’s room.

 “Why is there no one to guard the victim’s room?” Rhea was yelling at the head constable monitoring the scene. She was visibly displeased about the inefficiency being shown by the cops assigned to protect the integrity of potential evidences. “If anything has been moved out of this room or misplaced, we might as well miss a crucial piece of clue! Why the hell is no one bothered about her room?”

 “Our men are interviewing the students as we speak. Few of us have barricaded the roads around the university and searching vehicles. Few of us are searching the entire campus of this university and canvassing around the neighbourhood. Guarding her room was not our immediate concern, it is finding her.” the head constable retorted back.

 Rhea decided against arguing with him as it was nothing but a waste of time. She walked up to Ananya and sat next to her.

 “Hi Ananya, I am Rhea. I am here to help you find your cousin.”

 “And when will that be? It has been hours now.”

 “We are trying Ananya. Do not give up on us. We have rescued people before, we will do this time as well. Police have barricaded roads all over the city and searching vehicles.”

 “I was told by a cop that sexual assault could be a possible motive. Will she be raped? And then killed? How many times have I read this in newspaper? Please I am very scared for her. She is a sweet innocent girl, she doesn’t deserve all this.”

 “If the motive is money, we would have got a call by now with demands. There is no such call or so you have told us.”

 “What do you mean?”

 “Are you sure her parents have got no call from the kidnappers?”

 “Yes. Why would they lie?”

 “Trying to negotiate with kidnappers behind our backs. When you talk to your uncle and aunt, tell them such an idea is no good. If they do so, we will charge them with abetting a crime.”

 “No. They wouldn’t do so. We have come to cops for help. You are our only hope to get my cousin back.”

 “Alright. When are her parents expected to arrive here?”

 “They have taken the next available flight out of Hyderabad after I informed them about Geetha. They are expected to reach Pune in next one hour.”

 “I will talk to them once they arrive. I have few questions for you Ananya. But let us go out of this room and speak somewhere else. My team will want to inspect the room for clues.”

 Rhea and Ananya walked out of Geetha’s hostel room and walked past the corridor to the pantry area which was secluded despite a lot of police presence in the hostel. Rhea signalled Ananya to sit at a table while she walked to the coffee vending machine and brought two cups of steaming coffee.

“I already spoke to the cops.” Ananya told Rhea as she handed over her a cup.

“I know. I have studied the report. You need not begin from the start. Just answer my questions.”

“Sure.”

“Ananya, you should not be lying to me. Speak up the truth if you want to find your cousin safe and sound. Do not withhold any information. No matter how insignificant it may come across to you, you need to share every bit of info with me. Am I clear?”

“Yes mam.”

“Are you sure that Geetha is kidnapped? I think she might have gone dark voluntarily.”

“I don’t know why you think so. But I know she has no reason to do so.”

“How well do you know Geetha? Did you ever feel like she kept secrets from you?”

“I know her pretty well. We practically grew up together in Hyderabad. She has always looked up to me. She has her personal space as I have mine. We do not intrude into our personal spaces but we do not keep major secrets from each other.”

“You said she has no boyfriend. Is that true?”

“Yes. Like any other girl, she dated a few but was never in a serious relationship with anyone. She was still waiting to meet her perfect match. Few guys in her friends group like her but she doesn’t reciprocate. They are just friends for her.”

“We are trying to obtain the call log of Geetha. Once we get it, we will know with whom she does talk to most frequently. We will see if she has a boyfriend then. Those guys who are interested in Geetha, anyone of them serious enough to hurt her?”

“No, no. They are just bunch of boys.”

“We need to work out that angle as well. Did she mention if she ever felt like being stalked?”

“A few guys stalked her on WhatsApp and FB. It is just like every other girl. Which girl is not stalked on social networking sites at least once in her life?”

“Right. We get many complaints from girls who are spooked by online stalkers. She was not spooked though, was she?”

“No, it was not that serious. She blocked a few and ignored the others.”

“Any recent stalkers? Did she mention any name?”

“I do not know if she would want me to say this to cops, but I have no choice now. She told me a few weeks ago that an assistant professor might be stalking her on FB. She was scared to tell anyone as he might evaluate her mini-project. There was no need to fall into that revenge shit. As I said, it was nothing different from other girls, we all go through this in our lives.”

“Yes. But sometimes things go out of control. I will have someone talk with the professor. Teach him a lesson.”

“Please do not ruin things for Geetha. Leave him alone, I do not think he has something to do with her current predicament. He is just a stupid ass hole and a half wit. He just can’t pull this off.”

“As I see, things are already ruined for Geetha. And do not worry we know how to scare people for good. He will not trouble Geetha or any other girl ever again.”

“That will be a huge help for us. But please be careful. I don’t want him to have any vendetta against me or Geetha.”

“That’s assured. Do you think Geetha’s family has any enemies?”

“No mam. Her dad is an accountant in a private firm. Her mom is a home maker. No one has any reason to hold any grudge against her family.”

“Hmm. They would have received a phone call by now if it was to extract revenge or if it was for money.”

“What is next, mam? How are you going to find Geetha?”

“We are waiting for the call logs. It will give us an idea of whom she spoke the last to and where was her phone found last active. Once we get the location and her calls info, we will work on it and try to find her.”

“I can’t wait to have her back. Please do everything you can. I have never been this desperate in my life.”

“I can understand. You can go back to your room. Get some rest. There will be no more questioning tonight. We will call you if we need any more details. I want to talk to Geetha’s parents as soon as they are available.”

Ananya thanked Rhea and left the pantry. Rhea sat at the table lost deep in her thoughts before her phone rang and halted the thought-train.

“Hello.”

“Inspector Rhea, Rajesh from Crime Branch. How is the case progressing?”

“I thought the Crime Branch did not want to run point on this case.”

“That was then. I have now decided to work with you on this case.”

“What has changed?”

“We are keeping a tight loop on this. I need to trust your ability to be discreet before I share this with you.”

“I am discreet enough. Moreover you have no other choice. I will not let you barge into my case without having a valid cause.”

“Alright, no need to be harsh. Another student from the University has been missing since the same time around as Geetha. His name is Rohit. He is also from Hyderabad. He happens to be the son of a cabinet minister of AP government. We believe these cases to be connected. Your case of missing college girl has now turned into a high profile kidnap case.”

“A missing girl case is of no interest to you but you can’t miss out on a VIP kidnap case, can you?”

“Don’t be so terse Rhea. The CID is involved. We are just assisting them, acting as their eyes and ears on the ground before their own officers reach Pune from Mumbai.”

“The CID is involved? Wow, his father must have made few phone calls to some very important people.”

“I got a call from the CID officer assigned to this case. He expects to be brought up to the speed on whatever we have on Geetha’s case.”

“We are still waiting for call logs and her phone location info. You know how these warrants take time. The forensic guys have just received the warrant. They are engaging the cellular service provider to the extract data even as we speak. They are expected to share it with us in an hour or two. We spoke to Ananya and other Geetha’s friends, wardens and professors. Nothing of any importance materialized. I will speak to Geetha’s parents as soon as they land in Pune.”

 What about her room? No clues?”

“My team started examining it half an hour ago. If they found something they would have called me. I got no call, I am guessing no great clues are found. The room has been tampered with before we took control of it, so there is not much hope from it.”

“So we have no leads at this moment?”

“We have one. It may pan out to be nothing and it is difficult to pursue. But I have put a man on it. He is chasing it down as we speak.”

“Mind to share what it is?”

“There is an auto stand just outside the hostel campus. There is a chance that she might have taken an auto to go somewhere. If we can talk to that auto driver, we will know where Geetha might have gone from here.”

“Why is it difficult?”

“Because it is night and the autos have dispersed from the stand. They might have headed back home and who knows how many auto drivers use this auto stand? It is not like they write down all the names and phone numbers of all auto drivers of the stand on a board for public information.”

“I understand. But the auto stand union must be registered with the local traffic police unit. They might have phone number of at least one driver. Through him we may get few more. These drivers will be well networked, for sure.”

“That is what the man I put on this lead is doing. I haven’t yet heard from him.”

“Looks like we do not have much until we get the call log. Which is why, we have requested for the call logs of Rohit as well. The warrants have come through and the telephone company is extracting the data.”

“Wow. The warrants have come pretty quick I see. What more do we have on Rohit?”

“He is a party animal. We have units dispatched to every pub, lounge, movie theatre or any other place that is open at this time. He might have visited anyone of those today or he might still be in one of them. We are not even sure that he is kidnapped. No ransom calls or demands are received as of this moment.”

“Why are you initiating such a massive man hunt for a person you are not even sure is kidnapped or missing? Most probably you may find him watching a movie in a theatre or boozing over in a pub.”

“We wouldn’t have if he wasn’t a student of the University. In addition, even the time frame from which he is out of contact matches the time frame of Geetha’s possible abduction. The powerful people, who can order such a massive manhunt, didn’t want anything left to chance.”

“No shit. Hey who knows, we may even find Geetha and Rohit chilling out somewhere! Then all of this is for nothing!!”

“Hey, don’t you seriously think Geetha is missing? Is there a possibility that she is just somewhere where there is poor cellular reception and we have jumped into the boat too soon?”

“Ananya seemed genuinely terrified. Staying out of contact for this long and staying out late without informing anyone isn’t characteristically her. My intuition says she is in trouble!”

“You know what they say about female intuition! However you still have a doubt somewhere, don’t you?”

“What is bothering me is that even Geetha’s parents haven’t got any ransom call from any kidnapper. Not yet at least. However that might even mean that the motive could be sexual assault instead of money or leverage. If that is true, whatever worst is to happen might have already happened to her and we are too late.”

“We need to find her then. Also we need to find out if Geetha and Rohit are related somehow. Rohit is Geetha’s senior. They might know each other. There is this possibility that they are very much in love and might have run together to some place.”

"That is a possibility with least probability. I have asked Ananya if Geetha has any boyfriend. She gave an affirmative negative to that question. I see no reason why Ananya should lie to me about this. Also it makes no sense that they would run now. Why? What is so wrong that they have to take that step? Geetha has two years of studies left and Rohit has one. It is not like one of them is getting married and they took this extreme step to protect their relationship. There is nothing that would provoke Geetha to do something like this, else we would have known.”

"Bingo. My thoughts as well. I have asked the Minister if Rohit has any love affair. He too gave an affirmative negative. No reason for the minister to lie as well. However, there could still be some relation between these two. It cannot be a coincidence that they both went out of contact around the same time. I do not believe in coincidences.”

“Me neither. I will get someone to talk to Ananya and Geetha’s close friends.”

“Speaking of Ananya, I almost forgot to tell you about another strange coincidence in this case. Rohit is Ananya’s classmate. May be that is how Rohit met Geetha.”

“Are you saying Ananya is not telling us everything she knows about Geetha?”

“I don’t know Rhea. It is entirely possible that Rohit and Geetha have kept her in dark completely.”

“Anyways I can’t shake her any further. She is already pretty depressed and exhausted. I don’t want to go rough on her without establishing any motive on her side to withhold information. However I will ask her few casual questions about Rohit. Who is talking to Rohit’s friends?”

“Another reason why I called you. All my men are busy searching pubs and theatres for Rohit. We have no men to spare. As your team is already on scene, can you get someone to talk to Rohit’s friends and professors as well?”

“I will put someone to it. We are already stretching thin here. But I will accommodate you. And since I have been so accommodating, I expect you to run an errand for me. As your boys are running all over Pune, ask one of them to pick Geetha’s parents from airport and bring them straight to me.”

“Sure thing. Nothing comes for free, huh!”

“In India, police don’t work for free. Isn’t that the common notion?”

“Jokes apart Rhea. Once you reach the Forensics lab, we will go through the call logs of Geetha and Rohit together. We may find something that could connect these two.”

“Sounds like a plan. I will come over there once the forensic geeks have something for us. Bye.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The stakes are definitely raking up now that a VIP is involved! What do you guys think about Geetha and Rohit? You think they have gone dark together? Let's wait & watch!
> 
> Ananya made her entry in this chapter. Randhir will be back in the next one!
> 
> Please provide your feedback and love in the comments section below. I love to hear constructive criticism. Thanks!


	3. Orders are orders!

There were many gas and service stations across the length of Mumbai – Pune Expressway. Every gas station had food stations that offer hungry patrons either some ‘ _desi’_ street food to munch on or run a franchise of foreign burger chains such as McDonalds or Burger King. Tea being the unofficial national drink of India, it is served in many stalls scattered across the food parks of the gas station.

Randhir drove for 2 hours 13 minutes from Mumbai towards Pune before stopping at a gas station to get petrol for the car and tea for himself. An hour drive from there and he would reach Pune. It was already late in night and hence traffic will be light within Pune city as well. He made a calculation in his mind and expected to reach his destination in 100 minutes.

He fished out his mobile from a pocket and turned on the screen display. The watch on his lock screen read 12:30 A.M. Despite the late hour, there are still few hawkers selling hot tea and ‘ _vada pav’_ to their patrons. McDonalds, Starbucks and other big eateries have closed their shutters; they are legally bound to do so! However these hawkers have no such legal bindings, even if some cop catches them for selling the food and beverages at an unauthorized hour, all it takes is a ‘ _small token of gratitude’_ to get out of trouble. Some may also call it a bribe. 

Randhir walked up to a hawker and asked for _‘adharak chai’_. The hawker asked him to wait for some time while the tea was boiling. He specifically instructed the vendor to pour the chai in a disposable plastic cup rather than in a glass tea cup. Few minutes later, the hawker poured the ginger tea into a plastic cup and handed it over to Randhir. Randhir cautiously held the plastic cup by its top edges, placed it on the wooden table and handed him over the 10 Rupees currency note. He lifted the plastic cup by its top edges and started sipping the hot tea while walking towards his car.

Unlike most people, the reason Randhir didn’t want to drink in a glass tea cup was not because of hygiene. He laughed at people who thought it was a hygienic choice to drink in a plastic cup rather than the glass cup. It might be true that the cups were never properly washed and many would have drunk in the same cup. What they chose to ignore was that it’s not good to pour anything that’s pretty hot into an ‘ultrathin & cheaply-manufactured’ plastic container for the most obvious reason – plastic melts.

What Randhir was worried of is leaving fingerprints on the glass tea cup if he drank in it. He needs to return the glass cup to the hawker after he drank the tea in it. The hawker stows it away for cleaning. Any spy can approach the hawker as a customer and swap that glass with the identical one he brought with him while the hawker is busy serving him tea. The hawker would never notice because all he worries is about the count of cups he brought with him and the count would match. The spy would then have his fingerprints and do whatever he had planned to do with them. The problem was that those plans were never in Randhir’s favour. Hence, Randhir liked drinking from the disposable plastic cup as he could take it with him.

It would sound like a stretch for most people. Only if they knew how many times he obtained finger prints of his targets from these small slip ups. In his world, he was always hunting someone and was always being hunted by someone. He could never be extra careful.

He got into his car and shut the car door and windows. He turned on the engine to switch on the car air conditioning. He attached his scrambler to the mobile and dialled a number. It was his informant in the Pune Police force. After three crisp rings, the call was received.

“I was waiting for your call. The situation has escalated since we last spoke.”

“What has happened?”

“Rhea is investigating a missing woman case. I am sure you are aware of the details.”

“Yeah. Some college girl named Geetha went missing this evening. I am fully aware of the case details.”

“We now understand that a student from the same college also went missing. He and Geetha may or may not be connected. The boy is son of a cabinet minister of AP government. The CID are jumping into the band wagon. We are expecting CID officers to show up in an hour or two. They will run the show then. The Crime Branch is already working in tandem with Rhea to solve the kidnappings. Lot of political pressure to find the kids. We can’t attempt to disrupt the case investigations without attracting heat.” 

“The CID will be a problem. They are smart and have plenty of resources. Hog in the backstage till I reach there. Keep an eye on Rhea. Has she made any progress?”

“She is smart for a local cop. Smart and determined. She has set a man to track the auto drivers in the auto stand near university. Someone must have driven her somewhere. Once she gets to the driver, she will have more than progress – she will have a location and a time frame of when she reached there. She is also in process of obtaining call logs of Geetha. She may even be looking at the logs as we speak or she will get them very soon. She will try to identify the last person she spoke to before her phone switched off. If all these leads pan out, she will have a location, a timeframe and a person with whom she last spoke. Then it will not take her much time to understand where to search for Geetha.”

“True. We need to get to that auto driver before Rhea’s man does. Put your best man on it. Ask him to follow Rhea’s officer. He will lead us straight to the driver. Once your man gets to the driver, he makes him disappear. Use our warehouse to dump the driver in, we will let the driver walk free once we are done with this case. I want you to have the call logs of Geetha and identify whom she last spoke to. We need to get to that person before Rhea does.”

“Do you realize that by stonewalling Rhea, we may actually end up zeroing the survival chances of Geetha? We may as well be killing her.”

“I realize it.”

“But you want me to proceed nonetheless. Why?”

"Because they are the orders.”

Randhir disconnected the call and kept the phone back in his pocket. Randhir was not very sure why he was ordered to stop Rhea from rescuing a hapless girl. He didn’t like what he was doing, he had his doubts. His instructor’s words echoed in his mind, ‘When you are given a mission, you need not like it. You just need to execute it. You can shove your likes and dislikes up your ass!’

Randhir shrugged of his thoughts, started his car and drove off.

\------xxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxxxx-----

 

“You have asked to see me, mam.” Ananya asked Rhea as she was escorted to the room Rhea was in.

"Yes Ananya. Excuse me for troubling you again. I know you would like the most to be left alone. These are stressful times. But I need you to be strong enough for me as we discovered some information that may help us find your cousin. Can you answer my questions now?”

“If you say it will help you find my cousin, I will jump off the roof top. Answering few questions is the least I could do.”

“Very good. I hope there is no need to mention that you need to be 100% truthful to me, even if I sense a hint of lie I will arrest you for obstructing a criminal investigation.”

“You need not threaten me Inspector. Finding my cousin is an incentive enough for me. I am really not sure why you would want to threaten me as if I had something to do with Geetha’s disappearance.”

“You work in my line as long as I did, you will not even trust yourself! Everyone is a suspect unless proved otherwise. So, do not take it harsh, it is nothing personal, just a standard operating procedure. Now, please have a seat, make yourself comfortable.”

Rhea observed Ananya as she slowly lumped on the chair opposite to her. Rhea wanted to shake her to a good measure before she started her questioning and so that harsh threat was made. Eyes are gateway to soul, they say. Eyes are what give away a lie in investigation, only few trained people can lie even with their eyes. Most people lie very well with their words and body language, but their eyes always give it away, if one takes a close look at them. Ananya did not look like a trained liar, Rhea knew she would be able to sense a lie by a mile before it was even spoken.

“Ananya, do you have a classmate whose name is Rohit?”

“Two of them. Which one are you are asking about?”

“You know which one, don’t you?”

“I do not understand.”

“Of course you do. No sense in hiding it from me.”

“Ok. You are asking about that minister’s son. He knows Geetha quite well. But why are we speaking about him now?”

 “Because he is missing too.”

Rhea saw the blood drained out of Ananya’s face. This news came as a genuine surprise to her. But as it sunk in, the surprise was slowly replaced with nervousness, sweat settled on her brow, her palms looked wet and she was not maintaining eye contact. A thin smile broke on Rhea’s face but she snubbed it off and continued with her questions.

“Ananya, you suspect Geetha and Rohit are together when they went missing, don’t you?”

“I should have known it. I called Rohit as well when I realized about Geetha. His phone was not reachable. I did not give it much thought then, I went on to call the next friend of hers. Rohit is a party animal, it is not uncommon for him to be in places of no cellular reception. So I assumed he is at one of his parties and didn’t even call him back for the second time.”

“You do not like Rohit, do you?”

“I do not like speaking badly about people in their absence. All I can say in nutshell is that he is a pretty spoiled brat. “

“Why do I have a feel that Geetha doesn’t share the same opinion?”

"Geetha is a person who sees positives in everyone, she saw some good in him too. We do not necessarily agree on many things, Rohit is one among them.”

"So if Geetha went out with him, you are last person she will tell about it!”

"I wouldn’t say so. She has a group of friends, Rohit is one among them. They hang out together on weekends and holidays. Geetha always tells me when she goes out with them, although I am not necessarily happy with her choice of friends. No matter how many differences we had, we always looked out for each other, which was the way since we were toddlers.”

“Hanging around a group of friends is different from going out alone with him. Would she tell you about it too?”

"I am not really sure but I hope she would. However from your persistent questioning, can I assume that you have found some evidence that she was with Rohit today evening?”

“We haven’t yet found any such evidence. I am here trying to determine if they were together.”

“I really can’t answer your question Inspector. I see no reason why Geetha did not tell me if she was with Rohit this evening.”

“May she was worried that you wouldn’t like it. She was trying to be discreet with it.”

“Yes, but then she would concoct a lie to cover up with me. She would say that she is out shopping with few of her girlfriends etc. She did not tell me anything, which is strange.”

"Strange indeed. Do you know anyone who could throw more light on the sort of relationship that Rohit and Geetha share?”

“I have already given the names of her best friends, these guys go around very well. If Rohit and Geetha share some sort of romantic relationship, then these guys should at least have a hint of it.” 

“We will talk to them again. Anyways I have no more questions for you Ananya, thanks for your time!” 

“Did you get anything of use from these questions, mam?”

“Yes, I did.”

As soon as Ananya left the room, Rhea took her mobile out and dialled Rajesh.

“Hello Rhea.”

“Rajesh, I think Geetha left the hostel in hurry. Something had happened that pulled her out of her comfort zone and she went out unplanned. Someone made her come out against her will or at least out of her plan.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, even when I spoke to Geetha’s roomie who last saw her, she said Geetha looked a little disoriented. Ananya’s statement matches it, she said even if Geetha went out with Rohit against Ananya’s liking she would at least concoct a lie to cover it up. This time she did not say boo. She was pretty much tensed about something that she didn’t even think of telling anyone where she is going or at least lie about it.”

“Are we sure that Geetha went out to meet Rohit?”

“I can’t be sure. But I think we can safely assume that. I will have my guys question Geetha’s close friends. Ananya is of an opinion that they will have a hint if Rohit and Geetha are in love. Ananya doesn’t approve Rohit, so it is safe to say that Ananya will have no clue even if Geetha shared a romantic relationship with him.”

"Shake them good, Rhea. Get us an answer. Also when your guys talk to Rohit’s friends, ask them to understand what Rohit’s state of mind is when he left them. Did he also look tensed? Did he leave abruptly too? These are the questions we need answered.”

“Good idea. We can establish if there is something or someone who made both of them to drop everything and go somewhere, from where they never returned.”

“Yes, call me back when you have these answers please. And before I forget, we have picked Geetha’s parents from airport. They are currently at local police station, I have asked the SI to record their statements and keep them waiting. Give him a call and he will be happy to help you.”

“Yeah, thanks!”

Rhea disconnected the call and dialled in a different number. The phone was finally answered after some patient waiting and persistent redialling.

“Hi, I am Inspector Rhea from Women’s cell. You are holding Geetha’s parents for me.”

“Yes mam. We have recorded their statements. Where do you want us to bring them?”

“They might want to see her niece Ananya. Bring them straight to University girls’ hostel please. Inform them that I will meet them here.”

“Yes mam. One of my constables will give you a call once they reach there.”

“Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How long do you guys think before Randhir snaps off and says, "What the heck! I am not following any orders, I will go find the girl myself!"?
> 
> What has happened between Geetha and Rohit? What could have they possibly done to be kidnapped? Are they really kidnapped? Lets wait and watch.
> 
> As usual, please leave your feedback in comments section. I love constructive criticism!


	4. Best laid plans

_‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’_ That was the quote she lived by. All those who succeeded in their life did so because they had a plan on what to do with their lives. She knew many people who had great potential but ended up nowhere because of lack of a solid plan.

Sometimes there were so many variables on the table such that coming up with a concrete plan became next to impossible. She had the shrewd mind to see through the variables, calculate the risks, decide on the contingencies and formulate a plan. Coming up with plans that always worked was her speciality. That was why she got the job she had then. A job that paid her well, gave her a car, house and armed security. A job that made her one of the most powerful and feared woman in the country.

She stopped pacing the room, an activity she was performing subconsciously for last twenty minutes, and settled down on her chair behind a giant mahogany desk that screamed of power and command. She couldn’t understand how her plan failed so badly. It wasn’t a difficult one, there were virtually no variables present. Every single detail was examined and accounted for. There could be a problem with the execution of the plan but the team that executed her plan had never made any mistakes before. She knew it because she had been working a long time with them.

She could only come up with one plausible explanation – her men had been provided with wrong intelligence. She couldn’t possibly fathom who could have done this or how. She had put her most trusted men to investigate on how the wrong files reached her men. The person who sabotaged her plan should have known better than to mess with her. That would wait, she had more immediate concerns to act on.

It barely took her 2 minutes to recover from the shock of things going pear shaped and out of control. She called in her trusted aides and discussed on how to contain the situation. In ten minutes they had a plan and in twenty minutes assets had been deployed to execute the plan. In sixty minutes, the ground level operatives were given orders and they were set out to act on them.

And then she had to answer to her very unhappy bosses, assure them that their asses are covered even if the entire situation blew out on her. She was ordered to sweep this under the rug as quick as possible and was also reminded that they would throw her under the bus without a second thought if the matter became public. She was a powerful woman but they were even more powerful. If they warned her about consequences, then she had a lot to worry.

She picked up her encrypted mobile phone and dialled in a number. On the first ring, her call was received by a man on the other side. He was instructed to standby for her call.

“How did you screw up so bad?” she asked the man.

“I received a photo yesterday night. I kidnapped the guy who was on that photo. If he turns out to be a son of cabinet minister, who is at fault? I received wrong intelligence.”

“Why did you kidnap that girl?”

“That girl and another guy were with him all along. They weren’t leaving his side. We waited till the last possible moment. Before they exited the window of opportunity, we bagged them all.”

“Did you just say you kidnapped three people?”

“Yes.”

“I want to know the description of the other guy. Who the hell is he?”

“He is a lot elder to the girl and the minister’s son. We found a laptop, camera and voice recorder in his briefcase along with some clothes. His laptop is password protected, we didn’t yet crack it and go through his files. From the look of it, he seems like a reporter. May be the investigative kind.”

“A reporter? Wow, can this get any better? A minister’s son, a reporter and a college girl! This will hog the headlines of every damn news channel and newspaper in this country.”

“I know. What is the contingency? Three of them are still unconscious. They haven’t seen our faces. We can throw them of at someplace, let them go home. Case closed. The media will make some frenzy but it will settle down.”

“We kidnap a minister’s son and leave him off without any demands. How does it look?”

“We can rape this girl. Make it look like a sexual assault. The guy was with her, tried to save her. But we beat him up, tied him while we raped his friend. We didn’t know that the guy is a minister’s son. This is a plausible explanation.”

“We will risk giving up your DNA if you rape her. Moreover, how will you explain the journalist?”

“Do not worry about DNA. We are pros. How many people do you think we have killed? The cops don’t yet know about the journalist. While we were observing him, he was trying to coerce some info from minister’s son. It looked more like a blackmail than a conversation. I am sure he was trying to get the minister’s son talk something about his dad. I am sure he doesn’t want anyone to know he had a contact with the minister’s son. If the minister prematurely knows about the story the journalist is pursuing against him, he will destroy the evidence and will burn down the journalist and his channel. If I give him a chance to run and keep quiet, he will take it.”

“Why won’t the girl and the minister’s son tell the police about the journalist?”

“Because we will blackmail them not to. The journalist has some leverage over them. He was definitely blackmailing them into cooperating with them. We will know what it is and will use it to keep them quiet.”

“I do not like this plan. There are many ifs and buts. We may get exposed.”

“I too don’t like this plan. I didn’t sign up to sexually assault a women. If you have a better plan, I am all ears.”

She knew he was testing her. He would never rape a women, no matter how many men he killed. Shooting a man who would shoot you, given the chance, is easy; assaulting an innocent woman took a sick and depraved mind. He was just trying to see if there were any lines she wouldn’t cross, if there was anything she couldn’t stomach.

Would she allow an innocent woman to be assaulted? If it served a higher purpose, yes. No second thoughts about that. She was not an idealist, she was pragmatic. Shit happened to good people all the time, none could save everyone. But if harming few meant saving many, then the sacrifice should be made. Many didn’t have the stomach to make sacrifices like that, that’s why she was given the responsibility to take such decisions. She never savoured the decisions she took but she never regretted them either. They were absolutely necessary for a greater good.

“I want to know more about them. Who the hell is that girl? What is the relationship between her and that minister’s son? What is the journalist trying to get out of them? Why were they meeting in that god forsaken café? Once we know answers to these questions, we can formulate some plan.”

“Yes mam. I will provide you that information. But that takes some time. Do we have it? The cops are red hot on this case as a VIP is involved. The more time we spend deliberating, the more difficult it will be to cover our trail.”

“Leave the cops to me. I am handling it.”

“What about the mole? Someone has screwed our plan and made us land up in this mess. Who did it? Who leaked the information to the person who sabotaged this operation? What are we going to do about it?”

“There is no ‘we’. I will handle it. You just get the info I need. Call me when you have something.”

She disconnected the call and let out a loud breath. Her men on the ground were getting nervous; that was never a good sign. The more she thought of it, the more she felt like she walked into a trap. That was not someone sabotaging her operation, the operation was itself a trap. And she walked right into it. She was outfoxed by someone; someone who had resources to pull this off, knew about her job and knew which honey trap she would walk into. A lot was known about her and she knew nothing about that someone. She realized she had to be on her ‘A’ game if she was to walkout of that mess.

 

\------xxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxxxx-----

 

**Digital Forensics, Regional Forensics Science Laboratory, Pune**

 

“Come in, Inspector Rhea. You are just in time! We have received our requested information from the carriers, forensic analysts have gone through the data and are ready with the report. My good friend, Mr. Bhadra, will run us through their findings.” Rajesh said to Rhea as she entered the room she was escorted to.

“Hello sir. What have you got for us?” Rhea asked Bhadra.

“You may not be very happy to hear this, Inspector. You will have more questions than answers once we go through our findings!” Bhadra replied to Rhea.

“Bhadra, what the hell are you talking about? We were hoping that the call logs and phone trace would throw some light on the fate of the missing kids.”

“Good luck with that Rajesh. I do not think you will go any distance with this. But I will run through my report, see if you can make any sense of it. First let us talk about the phone trace, I am sure that is what you are pretty much interested on.”

“Yes sir, we would very much like to know their last known location. Did we identify where their phones were last recorded active?”

"Yes we did, Inspector Rhea. But before we proceed any further, let me give you some technical information in a layman perspective. There are two ways how the network providers locate a mobile phone, Triangulation and Pinging. Pinging technique uses GPS to track a phone and hence points the phone to a precise coordinates at any given time. This is the best way of tracking movements of any person. With the advent of smart phones that come with GPS, it has become pretty easy for us to track people. Triangulation is a pretty old technique to track phones that do not have GPS, this is how yester year’s law enforcement agencies tracked people. Triangulation is the technique of identifying the location of a phone based on the cell tower it connects to. But as you can assume, we can’t track people to the point because they may be anywhere within the range of the cell tower.”

“Thanks for the science lecture Bhadra! It is very enlightening indeed. Now, can we move on to something more important?”

“Patience Rajesh, I just wanted to ensure both of you are on the same page with me. The network providers have tried to ping both Rohit’s and Geetha’s phones. They did not receive any response from either of the phones. The GPS transponders in their phones have gone dark.”

“Do you mean to say their phones are turned off? We know that already.”

“Inspector, when you say the phone is turned off, it doesn’t essentially mean the phone is powered off. There is a fine difference. Even if a phone is turned off or switched off, the GPS transponder still remains active as long as the phone is powered on. The phone powers off only when the battery is either dead or removed. This is what has happened to both their phones.”

“The phones’ batteries might have run out of charge, Bhadra. This is one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is …”

“The other way of looking at it is that someone removed the batteries from the phones.” Rhea interjected.

"I tend to agree with you Inspector Rhea. Rajesh, generally we all charge our phones at night, teenagers do it even more religiously. Their biggest dread is the phone running out of charge. Unless you use battery heavy applications, smart phone batteries generally don’t die in less than 24 hours. So if the GPS transponder is off because of battery, then most probably it is because someone removed them.”

“You said ‘if because of battery’, are there other reasons as well?” Rhea asked Bhadra.

“Yeah, one can turn off the GPS transponder of the phone. But most smartphone applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Maps etc. need location to be turned on. I do not see a reason why both Rohit and Geetha turned off their transponders, that is if they even know how to. The other reason could be that the phone’s hardware is broken or tampered to malfunction. But these days’ smart phones have sturdy build, to break its internal circuits mean someone has literally hammered it.”

“Alright, the pinging technique has failed. Did they try to triangulate the phone?”

“Yeah. Same result again. Their phones aren’t currently connected to any of their cell towers. One good news is that we know the cellular towers their phones have last connected to. Bad news is that it makes little sense.”

“What are the locations?”

“Rohit’s phone was last found active somewhere on Sinhghad road. For Geetha, it is somewhere on Satara road. You said that they might have been together, but their phones were last found active at two different places.”

“What would Geetha be doing at Satara road? Do we have a time?”

“Yes, the last known contact with Geetha’s phone is at 7:46 PM while for Rohit’s phone it is at 7:17 PM”.

“Makes little sense to me. Do we have their call log?”

“Yes Inspector Rhea. Now the last call Rohit spoke to is with Geetha. He dialled Geetha, she received it and the call went on for 37 minutes 43 seconds. This also happens to be the last call Geetha has received. After that call, neither of them spoke to anyone on their phones. But the most interesting part of this entire episode comes now. After 2 minutes 22 seconds into that call, Rohit has conferenced someone else. This conference has continued until the end.”

“This makes sense. This conferenced person told them something, something that made them leave everything and go to god knows what place. There is little doubt that he told them something they both didn’t want to hear! Do we have the identity of that person?”

“Yes Rhea, we do! I spoke to the telephone provider and retrieved the PAN card copy that he has submitted as Identity Proof for purchasing the sim card. Look for yourself.”

Bhadra placed the printouts of the scanned copies of SIM application form and PAN Card on the table. Rhea brought the PAN card and the passport photo attached to the application into focus.

The photo was of a young man, how young was difficult to say from the passport sized photograph. He was a good looking man but what caught Rhea’s attention was his eyes, there was something to them that Rhea couldn’t quite point out. The name on the PAN card read Ritesh Raga and he stated his profession as journalist.

Good thing that Rhea didn’t know Randhir, else she would be have been shell shocked to see his photo attached to the application!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we even met the kidnappers! But looks like they got the wrong set of people!! What is happening there?
> 
> What business does Randhir have with Geetha and Rohit? Something fishy here!!
> 
> Please share your feedback in comments section below. I welcome criticism. Thanks!!!


	5. Pawn in the game

Randhir parked the car in his apartment’s designated car park and retrieved his briefcase from the backseat. He also took out a huge trolley suitcase from the car’s trunk. He caught the briefcase with his left hand and dragged the trolley with the right.

If one wondered what was in his trolley, they would only find clothes for laundry. Not that Randhir had no washing machine at his place in Mumbai, the reason he carried his soiled clothes was to match his cover identity. The apartment that he uses as his base in Pune wouldn’t have rented a flat to a spy. Spy Next Door sounds cool in movies but wouldn’t exactly work in real life.

There were days when Bureau had to rent flats in city outskirts for its agents to isolate them from the prying eyes. Those were the days when everyone knew who their neighbours were and what they were cooking for dinner! It was very difficult to pass off as someone else, hence the agents used to stick in an isolated place. But those days were gone.

In modern cities, hardly anyone knew their neighbours and what they did for a living. Most of the flats in his apartment block were rented by software engineers in flat share and they were least bothered about who lived next door. On his floor there were two flats other than his, one occupied by an elderly couple and another by four young female software professionals. The elderly lady wasn’t from this generation, so she was still keen on knowing her neighbour. He wouldn’t have met the girls in the other flat if not for a lizard scare in their kitchen.

One day there was a lizard running loose in the kitchen which created a mass hysteria in their flat. One of the four girls came knocking on his door to see if he could help, which he duly did. He made the lizard run into a bowl, which he immediately sealed and threw off the balcony. The girls thanked him for his act of bravery as if the lizard was a life threat to them. If only they know what a human could do to another!

He told them he was a journalist with a MNC TV channel and he had to frequently travel on job. That was enough to satisfy his neighbours’ curiosity about his flat being locked most of the time. The elderly lady spoke to him whenever he was there, she would ask him about his job, family and when he would marry! He was a master in giving vague answers and would deflect her questions with ease. The girls would give him a smile of recognition or an occasional hi when they ran into him in the corridors but they never asked him anything beyond customary ‘how are you’. That was perfect for Randhir, the less anyone asked about him the better.

He carried the trolley to create an image of him returning from a long trip on job. That was a precaution just in case he ran into his neighbours at this late night. He was sure the elderly couple would be long asleep by then but he couldn’t risk it with the girls. They were party freaks and it wouldn’t be strange if he found them awake and active.

He took the elevator to his floor. He observed that lights are off in both of his neighbours’ houses and there was no visible human activity. Just as he thought the coast was clear, he heard a soft feminine voice coming from the staircase. He let out a sigh, it was one of those girls talking to someone, probably over the phone. As he advanced towards the noise, he saw a young lady in her pyjamas sitting on the stairs and talking on the phone. Just as he expected. She gave him an awkward smile which he met with a sporting smile and pushed forward to his flat.

He unlocked his flat’s door, took his luggage inside and locked the door behind him. He carefully placed the trolley and briefcase in his bedroom and collapsed on his sofa in the living room. It was a tiring drive than he expected it to be. But he had no time to relax, so he took out his phone, attached the scrambler and dialled his contact in the police force.

The phone was not picked up until almost the last ring. It was pretty uncustomary of the person, he usually picked it up on the third or fourth ring. Something told Randhir that he is not going to like whatever the other person is going to say.

“Hell of a time to check in! Did you reach Pune?”

“Yeah, just. You sound troubled, what has happened?”

“Rhea has identified a new Person of Interest to the case. She is trying to gather resources to initiate a search for him.”

“Well, we need to identify him first. We have to be one step ahead of Rhea.”

“There is no worry of that. We already know who it is, in fact you know him better than me. Does the name Ritesh Raga sound any bells?”

“That is my cover identity. Do you mean Rhea has me as a Person of Interest to her case? Has she seen my photo?”

“She did, from the documents you have submitted to buy a sim card for your cover. It won’t be long before she gets enough men to start a search for you. As a VIP is involved, the approvals are coming very quick. In some time, Pune police will start looking for your cover. They will start looking for you. You may want to get out of Pune before the net is spread.”

“I am not leaving Pune, but I should leave my flat. At some point, police will figure out that Ritesh Raga stays here. It will not be simple though, cops will need few hours before they come here. How the hell did I land up in this mess?”

“Ritesh Raga is the last person both the girl and the minister’s son spoke to. Do you know more than you are letting me on?”

“If you are asking me whether I spoke to those kids, no I did not. Are you telling me that my number appeared on their call logs and mine was the last call?”

“Yes. Your number was on conference with them. The conference call lasted for almost half an hour. There were two missed calls to Geetha after that, one from her cousin Ananya and other from a guy, whom we now established to be her friend from school. The minister’s son too had few missed calls, all traced back to his friends.”

“Did the phone traces give any last known location?”

“There is no progress on that end. The phones are completely unresponsive at the moment. Their phone’s last known contact was at random locations.”

“There is nothing random here. Someone wants everyone to think that way. Don’t you see it? There is an elaborate plan to all this. Give me the locations and timings.”

“Geetha’s was at 7:46 PM somewhere on Satara Road while for Rohit’s phone it is at 7:17 PM somewhere on Sinhghad road.”

“Well, they definitely look random but trust me there will be a pattern to it. Satara Road and Sinhghad road should meet somewhere, someplace where these kids will have a reason to go to. Katraj pops to me.”

“What reason would they have to go to Katraj? It is not like Katraj is a place where kids hangout. They stay in the Pune city, why would they go to Katraj in middle of a day?”

“It is better to assume than they were randomly travelling on Satara Road and Sinhghad road. See if Katraj makes some sense, get in touch when you have something. I will move out of this flat, go somewhere anonymous and give you a call.”

“Ok boss.”

“Any luck with that auto driver lead?”

“I think we are getting somewhere with that. Rhea’s man is getting close, so is our man who is following him. We will get to that driver before Rhea can. I have made necessary arrangements, the warehouse is ready. We nab him, we dump him there.”

“Good, I may have a question or two for him.”

“Are you sure you are OK? Someone seems to be setting you up. The orders to stop Rhea, your cover painted as a suspect; I smell a set up. “

“I understand that. Trust me, I will get to the bottom of this. Just do your part.”

“Ok.”

“And keep a close eye on Rhea for me, will you Rajesh?”

“Oh, I am keeping a closer eye than you would imagine. She completely trusts me.”

“Good. Slip out when the CID arrives, don’t do anything foolish.”

“After all these years, have more faith on me Randhir. Got to go now, your missy is making a move.”

Randhir placed the phone back into his pocket, walked towards the door and peeped out of the peephole to see if the girl was still talking on phone sitting on the stairs. To his anguish, she still was. She would be a problem, when cops find the flat locked they would knock on his neighbours to ask if anyone has seen him. This girl would then tell the cops that she saw him coming home late in the night. Someone comes home late in the night and flees the flat before the police arrives, that would mark him ultra-suspicious in the police eyes. Rhea would be double determined to find him, now that she knew he was in Pune and on the run. Only if that damned girl had the sense to sleep at night, there would be no witness to put him there! Randhir cursed his luck for a second and retreated back to the living area.

He began to formulate his plan. Once that young lady goes back into her house, Randhir would exit his flat, take any of his belongings that could tie back to him and go to another safe-house designed to use in contingency. Once he reached there without any further excitement, he would then assess the situation and plan on what he could do to save his ass.

There was a boiling rage in him that someone played him like he was pawn in a game. But then was not the time to give into emotions, it was a time to keep calm and act. He got up from the sofa and continued to scan the house for any belongings that could possibly tie back to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm.. Rajesh was working with Randhir all along! How long do you think before Rhea finds out?
> 
> Randhir knows he is in a fix, what does he do to come out of it? Stay tuned..
> 
> Please share your love and feedback in the comments below. Thanks!


	6. The Secret

She fought hard to stifle the yawn but finally gave into it. It was late into the night and she had a very tiring day. She was sitting in the reception area, waiting for her aunt and uncle. Inspector Rhea had arranged them to meet her at the University campus. For a minute, Ananya was really glad at the thought of meeting them, it felt so good about meeting her family after all she had been through in the day. But then it occurred to her that she would be meeting the grieving and anxious parents of a missing girl. There was nothing positive about that meeting.

After some waiting, she was finally in the tight embrace of her aunt and uncle. Ananya and her aunt broke into tears on seeing each other even as her uncle tried hard to compose both of them. After they cried their hearts out, they sat exhausted at the coffee table sipping on the coffee Ananya’s uncle served from the vending machine. They sat there in silence for minutes before her uncle finally broke it.

“Have the cops told you anything, Ananya?”

“They are still searching for Geetha and Rohit.”

“It is not a coincidence that Rohit is missing at the same time Geetha is.”

“Inspector Rhea questioned me about Rohit and possible connection between Geetha and Rohit. I haven’t told her anything.”

“You should have Ananya.” her aunt chipped in, “We have hid long enough. It is time to confront. I am sure that bastard has something to do with this. It is my daughter’s life at the line. I will tell Rhea everything when I speak to her.”

“It would be of no use, aunty. I have received a phone call from one of his stooges. Even the minister is worried about his son. He doesn’t have Rohit or Geetha. He suspects we have something to do with this. He is sending his men here. I am expected to meet them tomorrow.”

“You took that monster on his word! Brilliant!! You are a kid Ananya, I feel sorry for what you have to deal with. It shouldn’t have happened to you or anyone. I love you and care for you. But I am powerless, we all are powerless to do anything about that. But if someone kidnaps my daughter and thinks he can get away with that, he can’t be more wrong.” her aunt replied.

“I know aunty. You know how much I care for Geetha. I didn’t take that minister at his word. I overheard cops talking that there is political pressure building up as a minister’s son is missing. Why would he create all this ruckus if he has his son and our Geetha? How embarrassing would it be for him if cops actually trace the kidnappers back to him? That will kill his political career. If he had his son and Geetha, he would have kept quiet about it and would have used his goons to threaten us. He has no reason to go to cops, unless his son is truly missing.”

“You are right Ananya. 90 out of 100 odds are that our daughter is missing because of Rohit. But we don’t yet know for certain that the minister is involved. Let us not rub him on the wrong side unless we know for certain that he is involved. We do not want to make an enemy out of him.” her uncle weighed in.

“That is just not it. There is something I didn’t yet tell you. His goons have taken my parents. If I keep my mouth shut about him, my parents walk home free. Else, they will be harmed.”

"Oh my god! I spoke your dad before I got into the flight. I should have guessed this, I should have brought them here along with me. They were planning to take the first train here tomorrow. This is terrible.”

“It’s not your fault uncle. None of us saw this coming. I spoke to my dad, they are being treated alright for now. He wouldn’t do anything stupid to them, he is holding them for leverage on me. He knows he will lose that leverage if my parents are harmed in any way.”

“So we keep this all a secret. No one talks to Inspector Rhea about any of this. We will cooperate with her in every other way, but this is off limits.”

“Alright, I will keep my mouth shut.” her aunt finally conceded.

Before Ananya could say anything, she was interrupted by her phone. She received the call, spoke for a minute and disconnected it. There was a thin smile on her face after she was finished with the call. She emphatically announced the news to her uncle and aunt.

“Inspector Rhea called. She is headed over here to talk to us. She said they have made some progress on the case. She also seems to be confident that Geetha is not in any immediate danger.”

“Good gods! Very glad to hear that. This inspector seems to be very resourceful. I hope she is sincere and helps us find Geetha.”

“Yes uncle. But we need to be careful around her about our secret. She will sniff it out otherwise.”

“We will be. We won’t let anything happen to your parents, I promise.”

 

\--------xxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxxxx-------

**Digital Forensics, Regional Forensics Science Laboratory, Pune**

 

“Hey hold up Rhea, let your partner catch up with you!”

“Where have you been Rajesh? What is up with you and those mysterious calls?”

“Well, I am working with a spy who got orders to sabotage your case. I am his mole. I am pimping out the investigation details so that he can hamper your progress. He keeps checking in for updates, I provide them.”

“Of course you do.” Rhea replied, pulling out a face. “Tell me the truth Rajesh, are you following up on any leads behind my back?”

“God, no Rhea! I was talking to my wife. The last thing she needs to know is that I am working a case with a beautiful female officer at this late night. Why don’t you get it? I am a married man, I need to fabricate stories if I am not home at night.”

“Alright, I am sorry. I get paranoid at times.”

“Well, you seem to be making mysterious calls yourself!”

“I was talking to Ananya. I am going to the university to meet Ananya and Geetha’s parents. Are you planning on joining me?”

“I can’t have that pleasure. I am being called back to HQ. The CID have arrived. I need to go and brief them about the case. Once you are done with Geetha’s family, give me a call.”

“Sure. Have fun with your CID buddies. Bye.”

Rajesh stood there and observed Rhea leave the lab. It was funny how she thought he was joking when he told her the truth. Randhir was right, sometimes the best way to hide was in plain sight and the best lie was the truth itself! Rajesh was indeed called back to HQ, the CID were about to arrive. However he had to make a detour before he can reach the HQ.

His men found the auto driver who drove Geetha to some place that evening. They had whisked him away in time and were en route to the warehouse. Rajesh would meet them there, see to it that all went as per plan, give update to Randhir and then reach the HQ. Rhea’s man would report to her about how the auto driver went out with his ‘ _friend_ ’ for a smoke and never returned back. He was curious on how Rhea would react to it. He was almost certain that she would suspect a foul play. She was already being paranoid and that would turn her even more suspicious. He knew he had to be more careful around her since then.

Rhea and he have determined that Geetha was not in immediate danger. There was lot of planning around their apparent kidnappings and hence spontaneous crimes like rape and robbery have been ruled out. Someone went on to great lengths to nab her and Rohit, they had some plans to use them as leverage for something. So as long as the kids satisfied their purpose, no harm would come to them. But they never knew when they would run out of their usefulness. Hence by stonewalling Rhea, he was most certainly putting Geetha and Rohit in harm’s path. He was very uncomfortable playing that game Randhir was forcing him to.

He shrugged his thoughts off and walked towards Bhadra. He would share a joke or two with his old friend to clear his head and head off to the warehouse.

 

\------xxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxxxxxx------

 

He was fascinated with the shadows from his early childhood. His dad used to explain him how they were just illusions. ‘They allude you into thinking they are with you all the time, no matter who walks with you or doesn’t walk with you’, his father used to tell him, ‘but remember that they do not exist. They are just illusions. Once the day goes dark, they are the first to disappear.’ His dad used to take him to magic shows when he was a kid. As he used to watch the magician in amazement, his dad used to explain him how they were nothing but tricks. There was no magic, it was all an illusion.

Thanks to his dad, he learnt the power and importance of illusions as he was child. As he grew up, he realized that life in itself was nothing more than an illusion. Life would let us think we own all we had while the truth is it could end any moment and take away all we ever had. As he evolved in his life, he learnt strange truths about human behaviour.

Very few understood how vulnerable they all were, rest just wanted an illusion of safety. They were happy to stay in the illusion of safety, ignorant of the threats ready to strike them at the opportune moment. Very few cared for truth, rest were just happy to hear what they wanted to hear as truth. All it would need is an illusion of honest and straight face telling them the shit they would want to hear and they would take even a lie as an absolute truth. Very few realized their full potential, rest were just happy to slave on computers and consider they were living a comfortable life. Someone created an illusion that joining an MNC for few lakhs per annum salary was a ‘ _settled_ ’ life and many promising athletes, singers, actors, authors, artists, entrepreneurs and politicians got stuck into it. They would never realize how the companies were stealing their time, freedom, skills and were making money for themselves.

As it was evident to him that the world only cared for illusions, they were the ones he gave to the world. God had given him the wisdom to see through the illusions, identify truths from the lies and seek the evil masquerading as good. He had since decided to use that wisdom to fight the evil where it lurked and protect the ignorant folk so that they can live peacefully in their illusions. He was a master of illusions and shadows.

He was composing a secret letter to someone very powerful before he was interrupted by his desk phone. He had let it ring for a moment before he picked it.

“Is Randhir on track?’ he asked the other person on line.

“Hook, bait & tinker. However we may need to review the situation again and give him a tap in the right direction. He has that Inspector Rhea on his trail. At the moment, he is on the run from her. Soon, he will try to assess the situation, if we can help him see what we need him to, then he will be on track.”

“How is the other party?”

“I haven’t yet received any distress signal yet. Trust him, I trained him myself, he is definitely one of our best. If situation gets out of hand, he will trigger that signal. I have teams ready to storm that place in minutes notice.”

"Should I worry about this Inspector Rhea?”

“She seems smart and driven. But she knows nothing at this moment and I doubt that is going to change. She is very young and inexperienced. She won’t be much of a trouble. I am formulating a contingency plan for her as well, just in case.”

“Good. Don’t underestimate anyone, we have pulled in some of the best players, it’s just that they don’t know the game and the rules of it. I intend to keep it that way.”

“Yes sir.”

“You have done some good work to this point, Raj. But this is the most crucial part, don’t fail now.”

“Have no worry of that sir.”

“Raj, you will meet your match in Randhir. Be cautious around him, he is not someone to be trifled with.”

“Randhir will meet his match in me sir. Leave him to me.”

“Good luck.”

Things went as per his plan. It had been a smooth sail to that point, but he knew he hadn’t yet entered the rough seas. He would soon enter them and when he did he would be ready for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is not lying to Rhea? And what has Ananya got herself into?? Who is this Raj and his boss??? What have they got to do with all this????
> 
> More questions than answers in this chapter, I am afraid! Randhir will return next chapter.
> 
> Please share your feedback and love in comments section below. Thanks!


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